96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



sentable city of a million people. The country through which 

 we passed was splendidly tilled, everything agricultural looking 

 finely. 



(Photograph No. 20.) 



The whole country is a garden, and most of it made so as 

 the result of hard labor. There were plenty of mules, and yet 

 many ploughs were drawn by men. 



At 3 p. M. that day our train ran through a breach in the 

 wall of Peking, stopped in an open space between the Temple 

 of Heaven and the Temple of Agriculture. A howling mob 

 of 'ricksha men captured our party and took us to the " Hotel 

 du Nord," which we found fully occupied, but at the American 

 Legation we met the Rev. Gilbert Reid, who kindly provided 

 for us at a Chinese residence, which he was temporarily occu- 

 pying. 



(Photograph No. 21.) 



Our beds were curious. They were of stone, built up about 

 eighteen inches and reaching entirely across the end of the 

 room. Midway a door opened under the stone mattress, and 

 there was a long oven where a fire was built to warm the bed. 

 In winter one side of the sleeper is roasted, while the other 

 freezes. This couch is called a kang. On it is spread a mat, 

 and here a whole Chinese family is accustomed to sleep. For 

 four days we did Peking. Bumped about its horrible streets 

 and choked in its blinding, ill-smelling dust. We visited the 

 Temple of Heaven and the Llama Temple where the worship 

 of Buddha is maintained. The Temple of Heaven is a large 

 walled area, with walls within walls, and in the central area is 

 the Holy of Holies. None of the outer buildings are remarka- 

 ble, and all showed signs of decay. The Temple of Heaven, 

 where once a year the Emperor goes to pray, is a splendid 

 pagoda, three or more stories high, round and tapering to a 

 large ball or globe at the top. The brilliant blue tile and the 

 bright-colored intricate wood work of the cornices, and the 

 harmonious proportions of the whole structure, make it very 

 grand. It stands on a series of marble terraces, built in circles 

 and raised to the level of the colonnade. This is fully half 

 a mile long, and I should say three or four hundred feet wide. 

 Chinese architecture, as a rule, is cheap and tawdry. 



(Photograph No. 22.) 



The Llama Temple is a repetition of a Chinese house on a 



